


Broken Promises

by CrookshanksAgentofOWCA



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child - Thorne & Rowling
Genre: F/M, Filling in Plot Holes, Grief/Mourning, Rodolphus is a mess, everyone's a mess but he's completely cracked, not really a Bellamort fic but its about their daughter so their relationship is still significant, the major character death is from canon but i thought i'd tag it anyway
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:41:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,615
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29569074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CrookshanksAgentofOWCA/pseuds/CrookshanksAgentofOWCA
Summary: After Cursed Child came out a lot of people--myself included--wondered, "Why didn't Narcissa raise Delphi? And how come Draco didn't know about her when she was born in his house?" So here is my answer to those questions.
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange & Narcissa Black Malfoy, Bellatrix Black Lestrange/Voldemort, Delphi & Narcissa Black Malfoy, Lucius Malfoy/Narcissa Black Malfoy
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

**Part One**

The Death Eaters and their allies were gathered in the front gardens of Malfoy Manor, preparing to leave for Hogwarts. It was rare for all of them to be in the same place at once and there was a tense excitement in the air. An hour earlier they had received word that Harry Potter was at Hogwarts. The battle they had all been waiting for would happen tonight.

Narcissa Malfoy wasn’t entirely sure how to feel. She was anxious about going into battle of course, and even more anxious about the fact that her son was right in the middle of it. They hadn’t heard from Draco, so it seemed likely he was still at Hogwarts. Perhaps the Order had taken him prisoner. Or worse. No one else seemed to share her concerns, even though several other Death Eaters also had children at Hogwarts. All the groups chatting around her seemed to be looking forward to the battle—a few were even laughing or singing. If they won, the Dark Lord’s control of the magical community in Great Britain would be complete. But the Malfoys had fallen out of favor with the Dark Lord during the past few years. Narcissa wasn’t entirely sure there was a place for them in his new world order.

 _But you never know,_ she thought, _perhaps a victory would put him in a good enough mood to forget all our past failures._

It was something to hope for, at least.

“Cissy, can I talk to you for a minute?”  
She turned around to see that her sister, Bellatrix, had temporarily peeled herself away from the Dark Lord’s side.

“Of course,” she replied, as Bella led her into a quiet grove of dogwood trees. “Are you okay?”  
“Of course I’m okay. Why wouldn’t I be okay?”

“The Dark Lord seemed pretty upset when he heard your vault had been broken into.”  
“Oh, that.” Bella waved a hand dismissively. “He knows it’s not my fault. The incompetent security at Gringotts were to blame; they took the punishment.”

Bella wasn’t actually entirely blameless in this situation, as her reaction to the replica sword of Gryffindor found amongst Potter’s possessions was no doubt what had inspired him to rob her in the first place, but the Dark Lord had a long history of letting Bellatrix get away with things that would get anyone else killed. When Potter and his friends had escaped Malfoy Manor a few weeks ago, she, Lucius and Draco had all been tortured, but Bella had merely been sentenced to house arrest. And then the Dark Lord had spent most of that time at home with her, so it hadn’t been much of a punishment. Unfairness aside, it was at least reassuring to know the man her sister loved was capable of some feeling.

“Anyway,” Bella continued, “I need to ask you something. If—” she took a deep breath—“if anything happens to me or the Dark Lord tonight—”

“Don’t say that,” Cissy interrupted. “You’re going to be fine.”

“I know but, just in case—”

“You’ll be fine,” she repeated, almost as a command. “You’re the best duelist in the world. And the Dark Lord’s always going on about how he’s immortal.”  
Bellatrix looked somewhat unsure about that last bit. Cissy wondered what her sister knew that she didn’t.

“I know,” Bella said, trying to sound reassuring but mostly just sounding impatient. “But I’m not taking any chances. This is too important. So if—and it’s a big if, but— _if_ anything happens to us, I need you to promise you will take care of Delphi. You and Lucius.” She made a slight face at the mention of her brother-in-law.

“Bella… _of course_ I’ll look after Delphi. I love her.” She had already looked after her niece plenty of times while Bella was away on missions or dates with the Dark Lord.

“Do you promise?” Bellatrix pressed, an intense look in her eyes.  
“Yes,” Cissy said firmly.  
“Good, because there’s no one else I’d trust our daughter with. If we’re…not around, she’ll be in danger.”  
“She’s family. It won’t come to that, but if it does, I assure you she’ll be safe with us. I’ll even make the Unbreakable Vow if you want.”  
Bella laughed.

“I hardly think that will be necessary. I just wanted to make sure. I’d better get back to the Dark Lord.”

Narcissa stepped forward and threw her arms around her sister.

“Good luck,” she murmured.

“You too,” Bella replied, hugging her back. “And thank you. Really.”

And with that, she disappeared into the shadows.


	2. Chapter 2

**Part Two**

It had been a long, hard night and the Malfoys were exhausted. Once they had Apparated outside their home, Narcissa refused to drop Lucius’s hand on one side and Draco’s on the other until they were safely inside. For a moment, they simply stood in the entryway, unsure what to do. Tired as they all were, none of them felt like sleeping.

They were lucky to be alive. And lucky not to have been arrested. There was still a chance Aurors would come for them later, but Narcissa hoped what she’d done for Potter would be enough to spare them. Helping him had certainly cost her in other ways.

The reality of everything that had happened hadn’t fully sunk in yet. Right now, Narcissa just felt numb. But grief would come. She couldn’t keep it at bay forever.

“I’m going to check on Delphi,” she announced, heading for the stairs.

“Right,” Lucius mumbled. “What are we going to do with her?”

Narcissa whirled around.

“What do you mean ‘do with her’?” she snapped.

“Well, if the Ministry finds out who her parents are—”

“The Ministry won’t find out who her parents are because we’re going to say she’s ours. And we’ll raise her as such.”

“Is that wise?”  
“She’s our niece! And she has no one else. It doesn’t matter if it’s wise, it’s what we have to do!”  
“But—” Lucius looked around nervously, as though someone might be eavesdropping, “She could be dangerous.”

Narcissa stared at him coldly.

“She’s a child, Lucius.”

“But she’ll grow up! If she ends up anything like her—” Lucius looked like he was about to say “parents”, but then looked at Cissa’s face and said, “father, the others will want her to pick up where he left off! We’ll be dragged into yet another war!”  
“For crying out loud, Lucius, any child has the potential to grow up evil! Delphi no more or less than any other. Although I think she’ll turn out a lot better if she’s raised by a loving family.”

“Perhaps you’re right,” Lucius conceded. “But we wouldn’t be the only ones shaping how she grew up—”

“Wouldn’t we? Everyone else who knows she exists is dead or in Azkaban by now!” Her voice had risen to a shout and Lucius flinched a little.

“Alright,” he said, but Narcissa wasn’t done arguing.

“She’s Bella’s daughter! I will do everything I can to protect her! I—I promised—”

And suddenly, the grief hit and she burst into tears.

“Hey,” Lucius pulled her into his arms. “It’s okay. Well, it’s not okay, but I’m here.”

“I promised,” she sobbed into his chest. “Before the battle—she asked—and I promised—but I didn’t think she’d actually—”

“I know.” Lucius stroked her hair soothingly. “No one could have seen that coming. I’m quite shaken myself. We didn’t always see eye-to-eye, but she was family.”  
“And so is Delphi.”

“Yes. So is Delphi. I’m sorry; I wasn’t thinking. I just panicked for a moment there. Of course she’ll stay with us.”

They clung to each other for a few more moments, then Narcissa headed for the stairs again, wiping her eyes.

“I’ll make some tea,” Lucius murmured. Draco simply sank into a chair, looking extremely pale and unsettled. He hadn’t spoken much since the battle. He didn’t seem to know how he was supposed to feel anymore.

As she climbed the tall, silent stairs, Narcissa was not able to silence her most poisonous thought.

 _Your sister is dead,_ it reminded her. _And it’s your fault._

 _No, it is_ not _my fault,_ she argued. _It was that horrible Weasely woman!_

Cold fury flashed inside her as she remembered Molly Weasely challenging Bellatrix, so determined to protect her fully-grown children, not realizing that she was stealing an innocent baby’s mother. And Narcissa’s big sister.

 _It_ is _your fault,_ the voice insisted, _If you hadn’t lied to the Dark Lord, Bella wouldn’t have been fighting her in the first place!_

There was no denying that. Narcissa didn’t feel particularly guilty about the Dark Lord’s death. The Malfoys were probably safer with him gone. But Bella—no matter what she’d done, she’d still been her sister. And her best friend. Losing her was like losing a part of herself and the pain was made even stronger by the fact that she could have prevented it. But what choice had she had? She’d had to protect Draco. She would have sacrificed her own life for him.

_But you didn’t. You sacrificed Bella’s._

It was probably better this way. Bella wouldn’t have wanted to live in a world without the Dark Lord. Had she survived, she’d only have been hauled back to Azkaban, which, according to Lucius, was a fate worse than death.

But that thought did little to ease her grief or stop the little voice in her head from continuously hissing _your fault your fault your fault your fault._

Finally, at the end of the hall on the third floor, Narcissa reached the suite that the Dark Lord and Bella had been living in. She tried not to look around at all the relics of two lives that were now over strewn about the sitting room—a pair of Bella’s boots by the door, an open book on the couch, a portrait of the couple holding a new-born Delphi over the mantle. She headed past it all into the nursery.

Delphi was sleeping peacefully in her crib, unaware that she was now an orphan. Narcissa’s heart twisted as she picked up the child and held her close. Delphi fussed slightly.

“Shh, it’s going to be okay,” Narcissa said, unsure whether she was trying to soothe her niece or herself.

At the sound of her voice, Everly Crabbe, who had been tasked with babysitting Delphi but was currently napping in a chair in the corner, woke.

“Narcissa! You’re back—what’s happened?!”  
“The battle’s over,” she replied in a voice of forced calm.

“Well, obviously! Did we win?”  
Narcissa didn’t answer and kept looking at Delphi, unable to look Everly in the face.

“No,” she murmured, interrupting the silence correctly. “No, that can’t be…. The Dark Lord?”

“Dead.”  
“And…Bellatrix?”

Narcissa felt tears swelling in her eyes again.

“The same.”  
Everly gaze Delphi a sympathetic glance, then asked, even more urgently,  
“And Preston and Vincent?”

“I don’t know.” Narcissa did, in fact, know that Vincent was dead, but she couldn’t bear to be the one to tell his mother, especially when it could have so easily been Draco instead. As for Preston…if he wasn’t dead he was probably in Azkaban by now.

“I have to go,” Everly said, hurrying out of the room.  
Narcissa simply stood there, silently rocking Delphi in her arms.

“I’m so sorry, Delph,” she whispered, gently kissing the baby’s head. “Your mama—she’s not coming back. I wish—” She blinked, the tears returning to her eyes. “I wish everything could have different. But I’m going to take care of you. Me and your Uncle Lucius and cousin Draco. I promise, we won’t let anything bad happen to you. Ever.”

She wasn’t sure how long she stayed like that, holding her sister’s daughter while overcome with grief and love, but after a while, she became aware of movement outside the window.

Quickly, she lay Delphi in her crib and drew her wand. Shadows flickered on the windowsill, then with a _CRASH_ a dark shape burst into the room. The figure stood and pushed its hood back and Narcissa found herself staring into a familiar face.

“ _Rodolphus_?” she cried incredulously.

Bellatrix’s ex-husband did not look good. He was pale and sweaty, one side of his face marred with bruises and blood in his hair. In his eyes there was a feverish, fanatical look: the face of someone with nothing left to lose.

“Hello, Narcissa,” he said in an eerily calm voice.

“What are you doing here? Why aren’t you in Azkaban?!”

“I managed to slip away before they got me there,” he replied with a grin. “Still, I reckon I don’t have much time before they find me again. I’ve come for the child.” He nodded at Delphi’s crib.

“I don’t think so.” Narcissa’s grip on her wand tightened. Rodolphus had been devastated when he’d learned Bella had had a baby with another man. Despite the fact that Bellatrix and the Dark Lord’s relationship had been a terribly-kept secret, Rodolphus had managed to remain willfully ignorant until Delphi’s birth. That, combined with his second trip to Azkaban, had broken him. “I’m her aunt. She’s staying with me.”

“ _You_ can’t be trusted with her! _Traitor.”_

Narcissa felt her stomach flop.

“I did not determine the course of the battle.”

“You know perfectly well what you did! You knew Potter was alive and you lied about it! Maybe you even helped him survive the Dark Lord’s curse somehow!”  
“That’s ridiculous. I have no idea how he survived. But if the Dark Lord was really as powerful as he’d always claimed, he should have had no problem killing him again.”  
“That doesn’t change the fact that you betrayed him, betrayed all of us! You’re the reason Bella is dead!” he spat.

She flinched.

“You know I didn’t want that to happen.”  
“Yet it did and you can’t fix it! But I can. Or rather, she can.” Rodolphus was now staring hungrily at Delphi. “Give her to me. Now.”

“What do you want with her? Isn’t her very existence a bit of a slap in the face for you?”  
Rage flared in Rodolphus’s eyes.

“Yes,” he growled. “Do you have any idea what it’s like to return from prison only to learn that not only has your wife had a child with another man, but she’s apparently been cheating on you with him for _years_?! Oh, and also that man is the bloody Dark Lord!”  
“It really shouldn’t have come as a surprise! Everyone else knew!”  
“Sure, people talked, but I thought it was just gossip! There was no proof!”  
“I witnessed Bella herself tell you, to your face, on multiple occasions!”  
“I thought she was just trying to make me jealous!”  
“If you really knew her, you’d know she never cared how you felt.”  
“Perhaps. But she will once I save her and her precious Dark Lord.”

Narcissa’s head spun. Rodolphus had never been an easy man to talk to, but he was making less and less sense every minute.

“What do you mean ‘save her’? You can’t bring her back from the dead. No one can.”

“I know that! I’m not as much of an idiot as everyone thinks! But I can rearrange things so that she never died in the first place.”

“What the hell are you talking about?!”  
“There’s a prophecy,” he said desperately. “I discovered it during the Battle of the Department of Mysteries. It was all I thought about that next year in Azkaban.” Rodolphus cleared his throat, then recited,

_“When spares are spared,_

_when time is turned,_

_when unseen children murder their fathers,_

_will the Dark Lord return.”_

“What? What’s that supposed to mean?”  
“I haven’t worked out all the details myself,” he confessed. “But what’s important is that there’s a way, using a Time Turner, we can go back and change the outcome of this war!”  
“Are you insane? There’s a reason Time Turners are so restricted! If you try to alter the past, terrible things can happen. You could destroy the very fabric of reality!”  
“I don’t care!” he shouted, looking truly mad. “It’s the only way to get Bella back.”

“She never loved you,” Narcissa said coldly, hoping her harsh words would snap him out of these delusions.

“But she will. If I manage to reverse her death, something not even the Dark Lord was capable of, she’ll see that I am worthy of her love!”

“Wait, wait, wait! If you bring her back by rewriting time, she won’t know what you’ve done. Neither will you!”

“But Delphi will know, because she’s going to be the one to do it. And Bella will believe her because she’s her daughter!”  
“Rodolphus. She’s a BABY!”  
“But she’ll grow! I just have to keep her hidden until she’s ready. Now hand her over!”

“No! I’m not letting you use her as a pawn in your insane plot to—to—what is your endgame exactly? Even if Delphi manages to change the past without breaking the universe and tells Bella it was all your idea, do you think she’s just going to leave the Dark Lord? For you?”  
“Well, that would be nice, but I realize it’s not likely. But she and the Dark Lord would _both_ be extremely grateful to me, so perhaps we could work out some arrangement where Bella…splits her time between us?”

Narcissa stared at him in shock for a moment, then threw back her head and laughed.

“You’d have to break the universe for that to happen. Bella wouldn’t touch you with a ten-foot pole. And the Dark Lord’s certainly not the sharing type! No amount of Time Turning will change that! You need to let go of this ridiculous scheme and just accept that Bella is dead, which I’m sure she prefers to being with you!”

“ _Diffindo!”_ Rodolphus had raised his wand too quickly for Narcissa to defend herself and she cried out as the back of her hand was slashed open.

“ _Stupefy!”_ she screamed, but Rodolphus parried the spell easily and it blasted a hole in the wall instead. Behind her, Delphi started crying, woken by the noise.

“ _Petrificus totalus!_ ” he retaliated.

“ _Protego!”_ Rodolphus was forced to dodge his own rebounded spell, which gave Narcissa the upper hand.

“ _Crucio!”_ she shouted and Rodolphus tumbled to the ground, writhing in pain, but a few moments later, he got back to his feet with a grimace. Narcissa had never shared her sister’s gift for that curse.

“I don’t want to have to kill you, Narcissa. _Expelliarmus!”_

She deflected that spell and it left another scorch mark on the wall. She was about to try cursing him again when suddenly she heard footsteps from the next room.

“Cissa?!” Lucius’s voice called. “What’s going on in there?”

“Lucius, no, don’t come in—aagh!” Rodolphus had taken advantage of her momentary distraction, sprung forward and knocked her wand out of her hand. Now he wrapped one arm around her neck and pointed the tip of his wand at her head with the other, just as the door burst open and Lucius and Draco came in with their wands out.

“Stop right there,” Rodolphus growled. “Or she dies.”

The Malfoy men’s identical faces went pale.

“Mother,” Draco whimpered.

“Get away from her!” Lucius yelled, then frowned in recognition. “Rodolphus? What the hell—”

“Drop your wands now, or I’ll kill her, I swear!”  
Narcissa tried to struggle, but Rodolphus’s grip was tight and she was exhausted from a long night of fighting and worrying. Simultaneously, Lucius and Draco put their wands on the floor.

“Good.” Rodolphus shoved Narcissa forward and she tripped into Lucius’s arms. “ _Incarcerous!”_ Ropes sprouted from his wand and wrapped themselves around the three Malfoys.

“Have you gone completely mad?” Lucius cried.

“He has,” Narcissa muttered, squirming in vain against the ropes.

“Shut up!” Rodolphus stalked toward them. “If you had just given me Delphi I would have left you in peace. But now, I’m going to have to ensure you don’t come looking for her.”  
“Leave her alone!” Narcissa screamed, at the same moment Lucius asked,

“Delphi? What’s this got to do with her?” and Draco wailed,

“Don’t kill us! Please don’t kill us!”  
“Don’t be ridiculous, Draco,” Rodolphus said with a sigh. “I’m not going to kill you. If you three were mysteriously found dead it would be very suspicious and I need to avoid suspicion. So I’m going to modify your memories. Erase any trace of Delphi. My plan will only work if you don’t know she exists.”  
Horror flooded Narcissa.

“No. No, you can’t do that!”

She loved her niece. She couldn’t forget her, especially now when she was all that remained of Bella. And if she forgot Delphi, she’d forget so many moments with her sister as well—the day she had told her she was pregnant, the surprisingly soft smiles on Bella and the Dark Lord’s faces as they held their daughter for the first time, the moment Bellatrix had confessed that she finally understood how Narcissa felt about Draco—while maintaining that Delphi was, of course, the superior child. But Delphi would suffer far more. She couldn’t bare the thought of her being groomed for a single purpose, raised by people who didn’t care about her and hadn’t really known her mother.

“You really _can’t,_ ” Lucius added. “Delphi’s lived here for a year. There’s no way you can erase _all_ our memories of her!”  
“Oh, it won’t be easy. It may take a while. But, I assure you, I _can_ do it. I have to.” Rodolphus raised his wand.

“NO!” Narcissa cried desperately. “DON’T, PLEASE—DELPHI!”

The Malfoys were sitting in the parlor of their manor, the day after the Battle of Hogwarts. They were quiet, shell-shocked but relieved to be alive and together. But there was a storm building within Narcissa. Soon, her numbness would evaporate and be replaced with tears. Bella was dead. And it was her fault.


	3. Chapter 3

**Part Three**

There was a frantic rapping at Euphemia Rowle’s door. She drew her wand before answering. It was unclear whether Thorfinn was dead or in Azkaban, but he hadn’t returned from the battle. She was expecting a group of Aurors and prepared for a fight. She was not expecting to see Rodolphus Lestrange holding a baby and a large bag of gold.

“What the hell is this?”

In answer, Rodolphus held out the baby. She did not move to take it.

“What is going on? Who’s baby is this?” She knew Rodolphus had no children of his own.

“Don’t worry about it,” he said unhelpfully. “I need you to take her.”  
“I don’t want her! What am I supposed to do with a baby?”  
“Just take care of her; keep her safe until she’s old enough.”  
“Old enough for what? Rodolphus, if you don’t start explaining yourself, I swear I’ll hex you.”

He sighed in annoyance.

“We lost the battle.”  
“I’d surmised as much. I don’t suppose you know what’s become of Thorfinn?”

“No but it doesn’t matter. This timeline won’t be permanent.”

“What is that supposed to mean?” A sudden realization struck Euphemia. “Oh. You’ve finally gone round the twist, haven’t you?”

“Why does everyone keep saying that?” he growled. “I have never been saner than I am right now. Listen, the Dark Lord is dead, but the war doesn’t have to be over. This child is a new hope for the future!”

Euphemia blinked rapidly. She remembered something Thorfinn had told her, a rumor whispered between the highest-ranking Death Eaters.

“Rodolphus. Whose child is this?”

He scowled.

“I think you know.”

She moved to slam the door, but Rodolphus stuck his foot in it.

“Euphemia,” he said pleadingly. “I need you to raise her. She’s the key to fixing everything.”  
“No. No way. I didn’t want her before and I especially don’t want her now! Do I look like I need a target on my back?”

“No one knows about her! Just continue to keep her hidden long enough for her to grow up!”

“You’re insane. Get her away from me!”  
“I’ll pay you!” he cried in desperation, waving the bag of gold.

She paused.

“Here.” Rodolphus dropped the bag at her feet. It landed with the heavy _CLANK_ of several Galleons crashing together. “I’ll leave this with you now. And I’ve got a contact at Gringotts who will bring you more every month, until I return for her or my vault is emptied. I swear.”

Euphemia knew this was a bad idea. But the sound of the dropped coins was still echoing in her ears. The Rowles were fairly well-off, but not nearly as wealthy as the Lestranges. What she could do with that money….

“Why don’t you raise her?” she asked suspiciously.

Rodolphus laughed bitterly.

“ _I’m_ going back to Azkaban. I already had a life sentence after the first war. I don’t see how they can make that worse, but I’m sure they’ll do their best. She won’t be safe with me. But you’re not a Death Eater. As long as you deny any knowledge of Thorfinn’s activities, you’ll be fine.”

“And what exactly do you want me to do with her?”  
“Feed her,” Rodolphus said with a shrug. “Teach her our ways. When she’s old enough, send her to school. Not Hogwarts, though. Too many people there who might get suspicious. Besides, she shouldn’t have to go to school in the place where her parents died.” A pained expression crossed his face and he twitched his head as if to shake loose the unpleasant thoughts. “Send her abroad. Durmstrang, maybe. Once she’s ready, I’ll break out of Azkaban and come get her.”  
“Once she’s ready for _what_?!”  
“Sorry,” Roldolphus shook his head. “Can’t tell you the whole plan. There’s too much at stake. But trust me, she is going to fix everything. For all of us.”

“And how—” Euphemia stopped herself. There was no point asking any more questions. Clearly, Rodolphus had lost his mind. Between the many years he’d spent in Azkaban, his dismay over learning Bellatrix was cheating on him (with the Dark Lord, so it wasn’t like there was anything he could do about it) and the fresh trauma of the Battle of Hogwarts, it was hardly surprising. But it wasn’t her concern.

What was her concern was the extremely large sum of money he was offering. And how much trouble could one little baby really be?

“Okay,” she said. “Okay. I’ll do it.”

Relief washed over Rodolphus’s face.

“But!” she held up a finger, “if the payments stop coming, I’ll toss her right out. Mark my words.”

“They won’t stop,” he promised. “This is too important to me. As long as she is protected, you’ll get your gold.”

He stuck out the hand that wasn’t holding the baby. Euphemia was tempted to demand he make an Unbreakable Vow, but there was no one present who could be their Binder and she really didn’t want anyone else to know about this anyway. With a deep sigh, she took his hand and shook.

“Alright, then.” Rodolphus turned to the baby. “I’m going to leave you here now, Delphi. Stay strong. Grow up well. Our future—and our past—is in your hands.”  
And with that, he handed her over, turned away and Disapparated.

Euphemia sighed again, awkwardly shifting the squirming bundle into one arm so she could pick up the bag of gold. As she headed back inside and the door slammed shut behind her, Delphi began to cry. At the noise, her augury ruffled his feathers in annoyance and gave a low, eerie cry.

It was going to be a long seventeen years.


End file.
